William McDonough

William McDonough is a globally recognized leader in sustainable design and development. He co-authored Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (2002), widely recognized as a seminal text of both the sustainability and the Circular Economy design movements.

McDonough is an architect, designer and has advised leaders from companies such as Ford Motor Company, Ralph Lauren, Gap, Google, Herman Miller, Hero MotoCorp, Proctor & Gamble, Starbucks, Unilever and Walmart. Through McDonough’s firm, MBDC, he created the Cradle to Cradle Certified® Products Program. Cradle to Cradle Certified® is an independent, science-based, third-party, multi-attribute product standard recognized by the world’s leading retailers, including Amazon, Home Depot, Walgreens and Walmart.

He has been active with the World Economic Forum for 25 years and served as the inaugural chair of WEF Meta-Council on the Circular Economy. In 2016, McDonough articulated a “New Language for Carbon” for human use as living, durable and fugitive carbon in the journal Nature as “Carbon is Not The Enemy.” He also articulated the Circular Carbon Economy as a design framework at G20, 2020 workshops.

Time magazine recognized him as a “Hero for the Planet” and in 2019 Fortune magazine named him #24 of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. Recently, McDonough was named to the inaugural TIME100 Climate List of the 100 Most Influential Leaders Driving Business Climate Action.